January 14, 2026

Dear Members of Congress,

Masked federal agents are unleashing violence and chaos in our cities and neighborhoods. Agents shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a mother, wife and widow of a military veteran, on January 7 in Minneapolis, MN. Just a day later, agents shot two people in Portland, OR.

We, the undersigned civil rights and human rights organizations, call on you to say enough is enough. Congress must rein in the violence and lawlessness endangering our communities. Specifically, we ask that you refuse to increase funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, and that you demand that any appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security restrains and requires accountability from immigration enforcement agencies.

Last year, Congress gave the Department of Homeland Security a windfall of $170 billion dollars to supersize its deportation force and detention network. Congressional funding enabled DHS to become what it is today: a dangerous agency operating with impunity. Masked federal agents, equipped for war, are dragging people from their cars, zip-tying children, firing tear gas at high schoolers, and pointing guns at peaceful observers and protestors. They are setting up checkpoints in our cities and detaining people based on the color of their skin, their language or accent, or where they happen to be. By design, these actions terrorize and wreak havoc. They tear at the seams of our families, our communities, and our safety. They poison our democracy and our way of life. This is not the America we deserve, nor the one our laws or Constitution allow.

Congress should use its Article I power to limit these out-of-control agencies and require that they serve the public, not terrorize communities with impunity. Accordingly, we call on you to, at a minimum:

1. Refuse to vote for any FY2026 appropriations bill that includes increased funding for ICE or Border Patrol, including funds for detention. The existing system allowed 32 people to die in custody in 2025, the deadliest year ever, while thousands of others suffer physical and sexual abuse, medical neglect, and degrading conditions.
2. Refuse to vote for any appropriations bill for DHS beyond January 30 unless it:
   1. Strengthens restrictions on ICE and Border Patrol’s ability to conduct dragnet arrest operations and target people based on their race, language or accent, place of employment, or location at the time of the apprehension;
   2. Ends border patrol deployment to our cities and rejects its ever-expanding mandate in immigration enforcement; and
   3. Limits DHS’s reprogramming and transfer authority, including specifically preventing reprogramming and transferring funds for detention.

These are the bare minimum reforms needed to start protecting our communities from the escalating and violent operations. We urge you to act decisively and show DHS and the communities you serve that the cruelty and lawlessness we have seen is unacceptable, and it ends now.

Sincerely,

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Indivisible
National Immigration Law Center
National Immigrant Justice Center
United We Dream Network

National Organizations
A Legacy of Equality Leadership and Organizing (LELO)
Acacia Center for Justice
Afghans For A Better Tomorrow
African Communities Together (ACT)
African Human Rights Coalition
Agroecology Research-Action Collective
Alianza Americas
Alianza Nacional de Campesinas
All* Above All
American Atheists
American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
Americans for Immigrant Justice
Amica Center for Immigrant Rights
Amnesty International USA
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC)
Asian Law Caucus
Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center
ASISTA Immigration Assistance
Autistic People of Color Fund
Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network
Ayuda
Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice
Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
CASA
Catholics Vote Common Good
Center for Common Ground
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Criminal Justice Reform, University of Baltimore School of Law
Center for Gender & Refugee Studies
Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law
Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Center for Victims of Torture
CenterLink: The Community of LGBTQ Centers
Central American Resource Center (CARECEN)
Child Welfare League of America
Children’s Defense Fund
Children’s HealthWatch
Church World Service
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)
Coalition on Human Needs
COLAGE
Color Of Change
Community Change Action
Community for Children
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Court Accountability Action
Defending Rights & Dissent
DemCast USA
Detention Watch Network
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
Dream.Org
Drug Policy Alliance
Economic Policy Institute
Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC)
Equal Rights Advocates
Esperanza United
Fair Fight Action
Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM)
Family Centered Treatment Foundation
Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project
For All
Foster Care Alumni of America
Free Speech For People
Freedom for Immigrants (FFI)
Freedom Network USA
Friends Committee on National Legislation
GLSEN
Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees
Grassroots Leadership
Haitian Bridge Alliance
HIAS
Hispanic Federation
Human Rights First
Immigrant ARC
Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef)
Immigrant Defense Project
Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Immigrants Rising
Immigration Equality
Immigration Equality Action Fund
Immigration Law & Justice Network
International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)
Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Jewish Family & Child Service
Jobs to Move America
Just Detention International
Just Solutions
Justice at Work
Justice in Motion
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA)
Labor South
Latin America Working Group
Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Latino Policy Forum
LatinoJustice PRLDEF
Lawyers for Good Government
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
League of Women Voters of the United States
Legal Action Center
Legal Aid at Work
Legal Momentum, the Women’s Legal Defense & Education Fund
Local Progress
Make the Road States
MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund)
Mennonite Central Committee U.S.
Mi Familia Vota
Mil Mujeres Legal Services
Missionary Society of St. Columban, U.S Region (Columban Fathers)
Mobile Pathways
MomsRising
MoveOn
MPower Change Action Fund
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF)
National Alliance to End Sexual Violence
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
National Association of Social Workers
National Center for Law and Economic Justice
National Center for LGBTQ Rights
National Center for Youth Law
National Center on Adoption and Permanency
National Council of Asian Pacific Americans
National Council of Jewish Women
National Council of Negro Women
National Domestic Workers Alliance
National Education Association
National Employment Law Project
National Health Care for the Homeless Council
National Health Law Program
National Hispanic Media Coalition
National Immigration Project
National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC)
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice
National LGBTQ+ Bar Association
National Network To End Domestic Violence
National Organization for Women
National Partnership for New Americans
National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence
National Respite Coalition
National Women’s Law Center
National Women’s Political Caucus
Native Organizers Alliance
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies
People For the American Way
People Power United
People’s Action Institute
PFLAG National
Physicians for Reproductive Health
Planned Parenthood Action Fund
Poder Latinx
Popular Democracy in Action
Positive Women’s Network-USA
Presbyterian Church (USA) Office of Public Witness
Prison Policy Initiative
Project On Government Oversight
Protect Democracy
Provincial Council Clerics of St. Viator
Public Citizen
Public Counsel
Quixote Center
Reconstructing Judaism
Refugee Advocacy Lab
Refugee Congress
Refugees International
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Reproductive Freedom for All
Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center
Rural Coalition
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF)
Sikh Coalition
Sojourners
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)
Southern Border Communities Coalition
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
Stand Up America
Stop AAPI Hate
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Tahirih Justice Center
The Cancer Network
The Diversity Center
The Human Rights Alliance
The Person Center
The Sentencing Project
The Source LGBT+ Center
The Workers Circle
UltraViolet Action
UndocuBlack Network
UnidosUS
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
United Farm Workers (UFW)
United Farm Workers (UFW) Foundation
United for a Fair Economy
Uri L’Tzedek
ValorUS
VECINA
Vera Institute of Justice
Vets Forward
Voices for Progress
Voto Latino
Washington Office on Latin America
Win Without War
Witness at the Border
Women Thinking Out Loud
Women’s Equity Center and Action Network
Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights
Youth Pride Association